My Personal Hoover Challenge.....

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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matchboxpaul

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 25, 2007
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....and now I need your help.

Over the last year or so , my interest in washers and dryers has really taken off again, having spent many years lying dormant underground.

This interest has manifested itself in a personal challenge to myself to collate and tabulate information on all Hoover front loading washing machines and their dryer siblings which have been sold in the UK from the 3224 Keymatic through to the abandonment of the square door in the early 1990s.

Thanks to the help of Mike King (yep I have finally joined Mike), Kevin Cox and Alistair Kerr, I have managed to gleen a pretty good understanding of the Hoover ranges through the 60's, 70's and 80's. BUT there is one machine which no one, apart from me, seems to remember or has any knowledge of and it is driving me mad!

After the initial Keymatic (3224 and 3226), Hoover introduced the 27" widebody series of machines, such as the 3203/3223H keymatics and 3208/3221H automatics and it is to this series of machines that my 'problem' belongs to.

It was owned by and aunt and uncle of mine and was a widebody automatic, the design of which was the spitting image of the RED version 3236H matchbox machine which would have superceeded it.
It had grab handles on the bodysides, in case you were mad enough to try and move it and a door lever in the same style as all the other widebody machines. A slate grey powder drawer on the front, silver facia and red logo and ring round the programmer dial.

Those are the certainties - lost in the mists of time are whether it had an AorB button or a programme guide.

Now for the assumptions. I would have thought that it would have been on sale alongside the 3223H keymatic and could have been one of two things:

either a simple automatic replacement for the 3221H (which had no powder compartment at all)
OR
Hoovers first ever Automatic de Luxe. The reasoning behind this thought is that it was, styling wise, pretty much identical to the 3236H Automatic de Luxe which would have replaced it.

Any help on solving this mystery would be very much appreciated (as would any images of these early hoover automatics).

Rather embarrassingly, when initially enquiring about the machine, I did an MS Paint rendering of what it sort of looked like and, oh my god, I have attached it.
Please don't laugh too hard!

Rack your brains and fingers crossed on my part that someone out there knows what I am on about.
All the best
Paul

2-25-2007-12-20-59--matchboxpaul.jpg
 
Matchbox!!!

Hi Paul

Welcome to the club & glad you finally joined, must thank you for the stirling job you did on the timeline of the Hoover machines, its fascinating working out all the variations, just need the time to do it...

I`ve asked a couple of Hoover dealers who trained on the sixties machines and none of them say they remember seeing what you describe, also have looked at two sets of Hoovers manuals thinking I might be missing something in mine, but all show no model like this....

I wonder if it was a renovated model, like a Hoover engineer/shop could have retrofitted a timer into a problematic keymatic etc....or sold it like that?? one thing I did notice was that those fascias where in a number of parts, and as the whole top hinged & pivoted for servicing you could easily swap out the keplate for a timer...

I first remember seeing a 3208 timer automatic in the school domestic science classroom, and because it had no conventional powder dispenser on the front I assumed that what we now know as pull out handles, that it was a pull out powder draw, however narrow it may have been...

Happy hunting,Mike

heres a pic of the matchbox series..

2-25-2007-15-26-57--chestermikeuk.jpg
 
Hi Mike
Yep I finally took the plunge and joined up.

Excellent picture above there - my parents machines were a smart looking pair.
The washer lasted from 1973 through to about 1990, with many repairs to keep it going, including a full overhaul when it was taken completely to bits and rebuilt from its constituent parts. It had to have a new backplate to the outer drum as the washing powder and water, over the years, had eaten away and the metal was only just water tight. Gave about four more years service - my parents replaced it in 1986 upon the installation of a new kitchen, but it saw the rest of its time out working for an aunt of mine who got two more years out of it and two years on top of that in her back yard. I'd love to know if any still survive - but I doubt it somehow.

The dryer was slightly different though in that it had a full length facia accross the top. The one above must be a very early version (or indeed a prototype?) or it could have been done to match the 3235, which also had a half length facia.

Have just spent a huge amount of money on 2 Hoover service manuals, allegedly showing all hoover products 'from 1965 through to about 1985' - fingers crossed that a)they do or else its money down the drain and b)my mystery machine is in there.

The hoover quest has expanded and have spent the last couple of days dealing with Hotpoints - the bulk purchase of Which magazines from 1976 through 1990 was highly useful.

Fingers crossed.
Great to hear from you
Cheers
paul

2-25-2007-15-46-1--matchboxpaul.jpg
 
Sounds like quite a task!

Will you be putting the results of your research online at any point?

I don't know much about the wide Hoover automatics, but I do know there was quite a price jump between the 3221H and the 3223H (£88 and £135 respectively), so a mid-price machine would make lots of sense.

Si
 
Love the 3223H. A neighbour of a mate of mine had that exact machine and it was still going in the early 1990s. I need to pluck up the courage to go and see him again. Can you imagine if it was still there!

Picture is all that I have of the half panel 3235 - the cold fill only machine below the 3236h.

2-25-2007-15-50-52--matchboxpaul.jpg
 
Hi Mike....bit of a question

Is the dryer attached the D6E16, modelled on the D6074 that you let me know about?

Hi Simon.....

Just to let you know that the spreadsheet is not all my own work by any means. I put it together, but without the knowledge and help of Kevin Cox, Mike King and Alistair Kerr it would have fallen flat on its face.

2-25-2007-16-15-51--matchboxpaul.jpg
 
Thanks Paul!

Most interesting! Nothing wrong with getting a little help information wise. Hope those sevice manuals shed a bit of light.

I'm sure you'll end up owning at least one of these machines sooner or later - being able to move around one's home without tripping over vintage appliances is rather overrated if you ask me...
 
MY PERSONAL HOOVER CHALLENGE

yo im alex tis is a hoover(HOLIDAY)MACHINE THERE SO RARE SOURCE HOOVER SEREVICE DATER HOOVER SERVICE CENTRES HAS THE INFO
 
EARS PRICKED UP ALEX!

Please tell more - this machine has been driving me insane.

You say the Hoover Service Data and Centre has the info - is that the official Hoover Service File issued to engineers?

I have just bought two complete (hopefully/allegedly) hoover service manuals covering from 1965 through to approx 1985 - is this your source? (see attached picture)

2-25-2007-17-50-51--matchboxpaul.jpg
 
Dryers

Hi Paul

Yes it is the Electra D6E16 dryer without creasgard, it matched the 800 & 1100 Electra models...Glad you won the Hoover manuals, They are THE source of Hoover Info, I`m sure you wont be too dissapointed if your machines isnt in, there is so much more to see...

Cheers, Mike

p.s. Who won the other two manuals from same seller??
 
MY PERSONAL HOOVER CHALLENGE

YES THATA THE MANUALS I WAS REFERING TO LIKE THE U4274 SENIOR THE INFOS THERE BUT NO PICTURE IT MIGHT BE UNDER BEFOR ELECTRONS AL
 
Hello New Members

Hi there Alex and Paul

I absolutely love Hoover machines. Welcome to the site, I'm sure your input will be invaluable.

Attached is one of my dream machines.

Rob

2-26-2007-10-23-57--RobM.jpg
 
I remeber those machines

My Gran had one of those machines that you so excelently drew with mircorsoft paint. It had an AB selector switch with one dial that you had to push in to get turn it. It had a red control fascia and no dispenser drawer. What a great machine tht was.
I sadly don't have any pictures left of it but will have a look to see if the manual still exists in my grans house.
 
Hi Darren and everybody who has posted since last night. Great to hear from people who remember the machines of my childhood.

It's uncanny isn't it how I start the thread and then someone decided to sell a matchbox dryer. My understanding is that this is version 2 of the 3022 - the initial version was the machine for which i posted a copy of the instruction manual cover (the slate grey facia with red detailing - this was the machine I grew up with).
I was also very familiar with the later version, a silver and orange pair of machines being owned by my best mates parents. Indeed, when their washing machine was pensioned off it was stored in the garage and became a play thing for us kids. Ironically the washer was replaced by an older 3224 keymatic, which lasted until about 1983 when the drum dropped - being left behind in the cellar when they moved house. Indeed, if you went back in time to 1983 or so and visited the house you would have found a silver and orange 3236h, 3022 and 3224 Keymatic, all of which were left behind and replaced by the 'new generation' Hotpoints of the time (the washer was 95450). All the hoover's probably still exist, unfortunately at the bottom of a landfill. It kills me to think of it!

Another relative had an A3110 and I loved to hear it spin - superb machine, later replaced by a Zanussi FL series.

A number of brochures were on ebay recently - unfortunately I was outbid, but the attached shows the complete A3108 through A3114 series. Before this I had never seen the keymatic or selectamatic ever before.
Does anyone have any full images of the Keymatic and/or selectamatic? Did these two machines have full chrome door, like the previous prestige models before them?

Enjoy!

2-26-2007-13-54-58--matchboxpaul.jpg
 
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